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[FF] The Heroes formerly known as the Fantastic Four

There hasn't really been a Fantastic Four thread around here for quite some time. Today brings us a fairly momentous occasion in one of Marvel's premiere books so I figured I'd make one to discuss both the big events of today's issue as well as just all things Fantastic Four related in general.

I haven't been following FF for very long. In fact, I only jumped on board with collecting it when I saw that they were going to be killing a member of the team.

That isn't to say I'm not a fan of the series, its just one that I've never bothered to collect until very recently.

So lets talk about this...

"THREE" as it has been called, is a story arc which is 5 issues in length, issue five having just released today. All along, it has been advertised since the start of this arc that one of the FF is gonna die. Being curious, I've been following the arc since the first issue.

Here is a brief synopsis of issues 1-4 (out of 5) of THREE. [NOTE: SPOILERS]

Spoiler:

Each of the members of the Fantastic Four have been put in impossible situations. Situations in which any one of them could be the one who dies. Here's a rundown on what's going on:

SUE STORM: She was invited by Namor to attend an undersea summit between Namor and an aquatic species of Old Atlanteans. While at this summit, Namor assassinates the King of the other tribe in an effort to start a war. There is a long history of bad blood here, and Namor wants to wipe them out once and for all. Sue Storm is caught in the middle of this war, trying to act as a mediator and ambassador.

REED RICHARDS: Reed has an encounter with Galactus on Earth. Galactus shows up, upset because he found his own corpse out in space and he wanted to know what was up with that. Apparently, Reed found Galactus's body in the future and brought it to the past and hid it from him in an effort to conceal how he died. Galactus gets angry and decides he's gonna eat a planet. Reed and some other dudes go to try to evacuate the planet while it is being consumed by Galactus.

JOHNNY STORM & BEN GRIMM: Ben (Thing) drinks a potion which restores him to his normal human form for a week. He and Johnny are tasked with taking care of the Baxster Building, the Richards children and the Children of the Future Foundation while Reed and Sue are away. While they are babysitting, an evil insect swarm of bugs called the Annihilus Swarm shows up to devour the earth. Their point of entry is the portal to the negative zone inside the Baxster building. Ben and Johnny have to protect the kids and the whole earth pretty much from an alien invasion and Ben has no super powers.

So that's the lead-up to the final issue.

Now. Before I get into who actually dies, let me say who I wanted to die. I wanted Reed to die. Why? Because his death would have the biggest impact on the rest of the Marvel Universe. Reed is a very important person with his brilliant scientific mind and the relationship he has with all sorts of people (i.e. other heroes and many super powerful galactic beings.) To me, if you're gonna hype up a death in a big team book, I would want the death to have meaning and have an impact. To me, the best choice was Reed Richards.

Who actually died?

SPOILERS

Spoiler:

For Real. Spoilers.

Spoiler:

JOHNNY STORM

Gotta say. I'm pretty disappointed by this. Out of all 4 that they could have killed, Johnny dying is probably the weakest option in my mind. Johnny isn't nearly as important to the rest of the Marvel Universe. There aren't a lot of important relationships there that make his death very impactful outside of the Fantastic Four book.

Was his death cool? Hell yeah. He went out like a champ. They had to seal the portal to the Negative zone and someone had to stay. He stays behind to insure that the Annihilus swarm doesn't break through to earth, thus saving the life of Ben, the kids, and pretty much the whole world.

But even with as cool as it was, I don't think its gonna be nearly as big of a deal as if one of the other three had died.

Lets talk about this. What do you guys think. Do you agree with my opinion (in the spoiler tag)?

If they could go storm Jack Kirby's house last time one of them died, what's stopping them this time? Even if Kirby/God said they can't do it again, this is the FF we're talking about, they can do anything before breakfast.

The final page shows a swarm of bugs all over Johnny and the last words of the issue are "THREE: The final stand of Johnny Storm."

I guess technically he could be alive because they didn't show the aliens ripping him to shreds. But it was implied that it was gonna happen. These weren't very friendly bugs. Basically, they were the zerg.

I enjoyed his first arc with Reed very much, and the Franklin birthday issue minus Val's retarded line. Then there was a some stuff with Millar's nu-earth plotlines that kind of killed the book for me. If they put this whole first act of Hickman's stuff into a nice hardcover/omnibus like Frankencastle, I'd buy it.

edit: Dark Reign: FF is actually Hickman's first FF stuff, and it was really good. Franklin is the bestest.

Honestly, Hickman's run has been pretty neat, but also kind of feels like an encyclopedia entry.

The "death" is really... eh. At least it was a super cool way to go out, but I mean I've read the entire run of this thing. The number of "Deaths" and "gone forevers" and "3s" that I've seen make me not quite care. I'm looking forward to what he does with the aftermath/resurrection.

And for real, the sooner Nu-Earth is killed/forgotten about the better. Ugh. I was so annoyed he maintained that horrible thing.

Damn that was an awesome way to die... more epic than Capt's "death" (although his death wasn't suppose to be I suppose) and I thought even more epic than Batman's "death".

And as we all know...

Spoiler:

Johnny will be coming back one day. Although honestly, I think this will be a Thor/Sabretooth situation. He won't be back in a year, prob not even two. No "oh but he's really alive... in the PAST" type situations.

It's not impossible we'll see him in under a year, but considering how Marvel hyped this up AND considering how he's not an extremely popular character or one that has a huge impact on the world, I think they're in it for a while.

But, as someone has said elsewhere in here, for all the media releases and marvel hype over the death of one of the fantastic four you never actually see him bite the dust. It's very much like how DnA killed of Starlord and Nova. You don't see them die, you just see them reeeeeeally close to death.
I'm praying that they all somehow "come back to life" together.

Johnny is in the negative zone, so maybe he's dead trapped there in some supernova form and can be chilling with Nova and Blastar maybe startup some negative zone policing force... I dunno completely unlikely since I don't think they died in the same universes.

that it would be Reed, since I believe that's the only death that would drastically alter how the team works and operates.

There was already a story arc about that, though, so I can see why Hickman wouldn't want to go there again.

Spoiler:

Partially because it was done twice.

Mostly because it sucked.

Interesting to see Alex Power on the potential replacement list. The Power kids always did seem the most likely to do the space explorer universal hero bit for whenever the FF would go into semi-retirement (IE, alternate futures, ect.)

What was the purpose of that scene where Val goes to talk to Doom in Latveria in the first issue of the Three arc? I kept expecting him to show up at some point (probably to stab someone in the back) but he never did.

Oh, that is my only other complaint with the Hickman run: super-intelligent people whose primary trait is "*smugface* I'm super intelligent *smugface*" annoy me all to hell. That dressing-down of scientists/going to start Bold New Learning Experiment bit he did with Reed was just not good even if I get what he was going for.

What was the purpose of that scene where Val goes to talk to Doom in Latveria in the first issue of the Three arc? I kept expecting him to show up at some point (probably to stab someone in the back) but he never did.

I'm hoping this is used somewhere, I feel like it could have proved to be of better use. Hopefully in 588 we'll see something.

Doom came out of the World War Hulks/Fall of the Hulks crossover with brain damage - Hickman is just following up on that with the Doom-Valeria stuff. I imagine it'll get a mention in FF#588 or the new FF#1.

I thought #587 was really well done, and its ambiguous enough that it can be reversed if necessary. The Wrath of Khan moment was a nice touch.

Doom came out of the World War Hulks/Fall of the Hulks crossover with brain damage - Hickman is just following up on that with the Doom-Valeria stuff. I imagine it'll get a mention in FF#588 or the new FF#1.

The Doom's brain damage stuff has also appeared in New Avengers and X-Factor. Also, Bendis has kept Doom on the radar in his Avengers books for the past several years.

Like Gank, I also expect this to culminate in a Doom event of some kind.

FF#1 felt a bit all over the place, kind of hard to put my finger on whether it was good or average.

Spoiler:

Nathaniel Richards is a good character to counter Reed, and the general idea of the Future Foundation is fun. The idea that Doom showing up to be in the group sounds interesting but really, the guy's done so much shit to the family (Franklin alone) that it seems odd for Val to consider it despite being a genius, and it should be mentioned that just because Nathaniel went to the future it means nothing in the context of the Marvel Universe.

And the prayer scene felt a little too smug, it kind of read like Alex was making fun of all those different religions with a "we're so smart I can't believe these people still believe this stuff" kind of thing. I mean, God exists in the Marvel Universe, and so do other gods, somehow religion is a bit more silly? Not really buying that.

There was also a two page silhouette spread of the characters on the family/foundation that would have worked better with the full character reveal in distinguishing Mik and Turg and Wu and Vii from one another, if only by the color of their clothes.

She may be bringing him on board to help with her plan of eventually killing Anihillus, which may be the foil that brings back Johnny Storm to the book. Also, why does she call him Uncle Doom? Is it anything to do with him being her first word or is there another connection between Doom and the children that I don't know about? I haven't really followed the FF books.

about Nathaniel being a good anti Reed, the dinner scene was great and I'm glad that Reed didn't buck at being criticized. And Alex's grace business did seem a tad smug, but I think it was meant to show just how crazy diverse the FF is both genetically and religiously. Didn't help that Alex was drawn smirking the whole time...

I'm glad the first arc

Spoiler:

is probably going to involve the Wizard and his clone because I've really been enjoying Bentley being part of the Future Foundation. His love of bombs in "Three" was hilarious.

All in all, I really can't wait for the next issue.

And, by proxy, the next issue of Hickmans S.H.I.E.L.D. cos I can't get enough Nathaniel.

I guess I'm the only one didn't find the grace bit smug at all. We only actually see Alex once during it, and he isn't smiling at all. The only ones who smile are Sue at the end(probably due to how dang weird it was) and Bentley, because he is Bentley.

Alrighty, went and re-read FF #1. Alex is kinda smirking in the panel where he agrees to lead in grace but when you see him again he's lookin pretty solemn. And Reeds smiling with Sue, but probably for the same reasons you said. I probably just read it as smarmy cos that's how I woulda said it.

Also I should probably not care about that so much, seeing as I still enjoyed the issue as a whole.